103 SYNTAX

We found those whom we feared might be interested to withhold the
settlement alert and prompt to assist us.—GALT.

Mr. Dombey, whom he now began to perceive was as far beyond
human recall.—DICKENS.

Those whom it was originally pronounced would be allowed to go.
—Spectator.

But this looks as if he has included the original 30,000 men whom he
desires 'should be in the country now'.—Times.

We feed children whom we think are hungry.—Times.

The only gentlemen holding this office in the island, whom, he felt sure,
would work for the spiritual good of the parish.—Guernsey Advertiser.

These writers evidently think that in 'whom we think are
hungry' 'whom' is the object of 'we think'. The relative is in
fact the subject of 'are'; and the object of 'we think' is the
clause 'who are hungry'; the order of the words is a necessary
result of the fact that a relative subject must stand at the
beginning of its clause.

It is interesting to notice that in Matt. xvi. 13 and 15, the
revisers have corrected the A.V. grammar, writing 'But who say
ye that I am5 instead of 'But whom . ..'

(The same awkward necessity confronts us in clauses with
'when', 'though', &c., in which the subject is a relative. Such
clauses are practically recognized as impossible, though Otway,
in a courageous moment, wrote:

Unblemished honour, and a spotless love;
Which tho* perhaps now know another flame,
Yet I have love and passion for their name.)

Some writers, with a consistency worthy of a better cause,
carry the blunder into the passive, renouncing the advantages
of an ambiguous 'which' in the active; for in the active 'which'
of course tells no tales.

As to all this, the trend of events has been the reverse of that which
was anticipated would be the result of democratic institutions.—Times.

'Which it was anticipated would be*. Similarly, the passive
of 'men whom we-know-are-honest' is the impossible 'men
who are-known-are-honest': 'men who we know are honest*
gives the correct passive 'men who it is known are honest'.